KingofthePisces
Fish Crazy
Common name: Australian Barramundi
Scientific name: Lates calcarifer
Family: Latidae
Origin: Indonesian-West Pacific region from the Persian Gulf through Southeast Asia and Northern Australia.
Description: Barramundi are magnificent fish mixing elegance with blinding speed. Barramundi vary in color. Juveniles are silvery with some sort of olive-green tint, while adults are more uniformly silvery-grey. Platinum colorations are found on the market but these are rare and often very costly.
Size: The maximum size for barramundi is around 1.8m in length but such lengths are rare in the aquarium and usually grow to around 50cm - 1.2m. As a general rule, they are far too large for the average home aquarium as their growth rate is very fast. The specimens for sale actually come from the food fish market which says a lot about their growth rate.
Food: Live food is a favorite of barramundi but they can be trained to eat frozen and sometimes dried food like sinking pellets. A varied diet is essential to avoid problems with thiaminase. Feeder fish should, as always, be avoided because of fat and thiaminase issues. Earthworms, river shrimps, frozen squid, chopped rainbow trout, pollack fillet, whole lance fish, etc. are all useful foods. Good quality pellets, such as Hikari Cichlid Gold, will be taken; the fish from farms are fed pellet foods, so there's no need to worry about live foods. Besides, feeding a 60+ cm adult barramundi on live foods would be incredibly expensive.
Compatibility: Barramundi are usually placid in the aquarium making them suitable for communities of fish that are the same size as the barramundi. But because of the sheer size of these fish, they really aren’t community fish as anything smaller than them will be viewed as prey. Their feeding reflex is generally rapid and without warning making fish that dislike sudden movements inside and outside the tank not suitable as tankmates.
Water conditions: Adults live in fresh water but spawn in estuaries (so salt is not generally needed). Juveniles are best kept in hard alkaline water with a pH of 7.2 - 7.8 tank temperature can be anywhere in between 20 - 28 degrees C. They are very adaptable fish.
Tank size: Because of the general size of barramundi a very large tank is needed to house one barramundi. A 5x2x2 is a good size for a large barramundi but younger barramundi can be kept in smaller tanks. As previously mentioned, their growth rate is rapid. A 10cm fish will 30cm within the first year and 60cm in within the second year making anything but the largest of home aquariums too small.
Sexing: Barramundi start life male and reach sexual maturity at around 3 years of age and change their sex to female at the age of 5 years but breeding in home aquaria isn’t an option.
Scientific name: Lates calcarifer
Family: Latidae
Origin: Indonesian-West Pacific region from the Persian Gulf through Southeast Asia and Northern Australia.
Description: Barramundi are magnificent fish mixing elegance with blinding speed. Barramundi vary in color. Juveniles are silvery with some sort of olive-green tint, while adults are more uniformly silvery-grey. Platinum colorations are found on the market but these are rare and often very costly.
Size: The maximum size for barramundi is around 1.8m in length but such lengths are rare in the aquarium and usually grow to around 50cm - 1.2m. As a general rule, they are far too large for the average home aquarium as their growth rate is very fast. The specimens for sale actually come from the food fish market which says a lot about their growth rate.
Food: Live food is a favorite of barramundi but they can be trained to eat frozen and sometimes dried food like sinking pellets. A varied diet is essential to avoid problems with thiaminase. Feeder fish should, as always, be avoided because of fat and thiaminase issues. Earthworms, river shrimps, frozen squid, chopped rainbow trout, pollack fillet, whole lance fish, etc. are all useful foods. Good quality pellets, such as Hikari Cichlid Gold, will be taken; the fish from farms are fed pellet foods, so there's no need to worry about live foods. Besides, feeding a 60+ cm adult barramundi on live foods would be incredibly expensive.
Compatibility: Barramundi are usually placid in the aquarium making them suitable for communities of fish that are the same size as the barramundi. But because of the sheer size of these fish, they really aren’t community fish as anything smaller than them will be viewed as prey. Their feeding reflex is generally rapid and without warning making fish that dislike sudden movements inside and outside the tank not suitable as tankmates.
Water conditions: Adults live in fresh water but spawn in estuaries (so salt is not generally needed). Juveniles are best kept in hard alkaline water with a pH of 7.2 - 7.8 tank temperature can be anywhere in between 20 - 28 degrees C. They are very adaptable fish.
Tank size: Because of the general size of barramundi a very large tank is needed to house one barramundi. A 5x2x2 is a good size for a large barramundi but younger barramundi can be kept in smaller tanks. As previously mentioned, their growth rate is rapid. A 10cm fish will 30cm within the first year and 60cm in within the second year making anything but the largest of home aquariums too small.
Sexing: Barramundi start life male and reach sexual maturity at around 3 years of age and change their sex to female at the age of 5 years but breeding in home aquaria isn’t an option.
